Interoception Flashcards

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1
Q

What is interoception?

A

The sense of the internal state of the body.

Foundation of sense of the physical self.

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2
Q

What does Interoception tell us?

A
  • The feelings we receive from the body
  • Homeostasis
  • Informs us of our physical state
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3
Q

What is the restrictive definition of interoception?

A

Purely visceral - info concerning the functional state of the internal organs

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4
Q

What is the inclusive definition of interoception?

A

General homeostatic sensory capacity - info concerning the broader physiological state and motivational needs of the body

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5
Q

What is the goal of homeostasis?

A

To achieve physical equilibrium

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6
Q

What pathway do intereoceptive signals follow?

A

Neural anatomical pathway

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7
Q

What is the anatomical pathway?

A

Similar categories of afferent nerves.

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8
Q

What kind of pathway is the neural anatomical pathway?

A

Ascending.

Consisting of afferent neurons (nerve fibers carrying info towards the brain)

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9
Q

What are afferent neurons?

A

Carrying signals from the body to the brain

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10
Q

How does myelination effect the neurons in the anatomical pathway?

A
  • Increases efficiency of electrical transmission (signals travel faster)
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11
Q

What information do myelinated nerves carry?

A

Nociceptors (pain)

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12
Q

What information do unmyelinated nerves carry?

A

Affective touch (CT afferents)

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13
Q

Where do interoceptive signals travel in the spinal cord?

A
  • Into the dorsal horn of the spinal cord
  • The cells in the dorsal horn are divided into physiologically distinct layers (laminae)
  • Projects contralaterally to the lateral spinothalamic tract
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14
Q

Where do interoceptive signals travel in the brain?

A
  • Lamina 1 projects to brain stem
  • Then to the thalamus, hypothalamus and amygdala
  • Finally to the cortex (specifically insula and anterior cingulate)
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15
Q

How do afferent projections maintain homeostasis?

A
  • Afferent projections from the dorsal horn provide the somato-automatic reflexes crucial for maintaining homeostasis
  • Continuous feedbackk
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16
Q

What is another name for the insula cortex?

A

The interospective cortex

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17
Q

Where is the insula cortex?

A

Hidden in the centre of the brain

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18
Q

How is interoception linked to emotions?

A
  • There’s an intrinsic link between the physiological state of the body and emotion
  • Emotions can be felt in the body
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19
Q

What is alexithymia?

A

People have no words for their emotions - linked to interoception deficits.

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20
Q

Explain our ‘gut feeling’ using interoception.

A
  • The interconnection between the gut and the brain is deeply rooted in our language
  • Neural network communicates with the brain about gastrointestinal homeostasis.
  • Bidirectional - emotions can influence digestive system too
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21
Q

Where did Aristotle believe the self was?

A

In the heart

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22
Q

Where is the self?

A

The strongest sensations we get in our bodies is usually related to the heart.
But we live in a very thought-led society so the self could also be in the head/brain.

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23
Q

How can interoception affect behaviour?

A
  • Emotional behaviours evolved to produce goal-directed actions that fulfil homeostatic needs of the body
  • How you feel can be moderated by physiological state of the body
  • How you feel can influence your behaviour
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24
Q

How do physiological motivations effect our behaviour?

A
  • Cognition takes place within the context of the body that needs to stay alive and be healthy
  • Brains evolved to regulate bodies within a social context
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25
Q

Give an example of how phsyiological motivations effect our behaviour?

A

Piece of cake - at first the piece of cake looks yummy but once you’ve eaten it, your body tells you that you’re full and so you don’t eat anymore before you are sick.

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26
Q

Explain the link between interoception and behaviour.

A
  • Affective experience influenced by the current body state

- Drives behaviour to achieve homeostasis

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27
Q

What paradigm did Garfinkel et al 2014 study?

A

Attentional Blink (AB) Paradigm

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28
Q

What happens in the Attentional Blink Paradigm?

A

Identification of an initial target during a rapid serial visual presentation of stimuli which impairs the ability to detect the second target.

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29
Q

What did Garfinel et al 2014 measure against the rapid serial visual presentation?

A

Different phases of the heartbeat - Systole and Diastole states

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30
Q

What is systole?

A

When the heart contracts

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31
Q

What is diastole?

A

When the heart relaxes

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32
Q

What are Baroreceptors?

A

Thin, myelinated neurons that go into the spinal cord to convey info from the heart to lead the brain to cause top-down regulatory signals to come back to that homeostatic state of equilibrium

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33
Q

What did Garfinkel et al 2014 do in the second half of their experiment?

A

Target 1 was always a house and Target 2 was a face (disgust, fear, sad, happy, or neutral).
Following the AB task, the recognition od T1 and T2 stimuli was examined

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34
Q

What did Garfinkel et al 2014 find?

A
  • Timing of stimuli facilitated detection of T2 for fear faces only.
  • Systole presentation led to greater proportion of fear faces being detected.
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35
Q

What did Garfinkel et al 2014 do in their second experiment?

A
  • MRI experiment
  • Neutral of fear faces presented briefly
  • Presented in either diastole or systole
  • Emotion intensity ratings
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36
Q

What did Garfinkel et al 2014 find in their second experiment?

A
  • Timing of the stimuli related to intensity judgments
  • Systole stimuli led to greater intensity for fear faces
    0 Diastole stimuli trend for greater intensity for neutral faces
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37
Q

How did Garfinkel et al 2014’s experiment link to anxiety?

A

They found that the interaction between the cardiac cycle and the emotion intensity seemed to be related to their state level of anxiety.

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38
Q

What did MRI scans show in Garfinkel et al 2014’s second experiment?

A
  • Cardiac presentation i slinked to anterior insular activity
  • Amygdala activity is sensitive to phases of the cardiac cycle and predicted shifts in emotion
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39
Q

How can Garfinkel et al 2014’s results be translated in the real world?

A
  • Percdeption of threat is dependent on the level of physiological arousal
  • In systole, the heart is working the hardest
  • Greater arousal (more and stronger heartbeats) would mean more time in systole compared to diastole
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40
Q

What did Azevedo et al 2017 study?

A
  • Complex human behaviours
  • Effect of cardiac cycle on racial stereotyping
  • Comparing stimulus presentation in systole and diastole
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41
Q

What was the method in Azevedo et al 2017?

A
  • Identify targets (tool or weapon)
  • Primed by black or white male faces
  • presented at systole or diastole
  • PP was asked to identify whether the second stimulus was a weapon or tool
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42
Q

What did Azevedo et al 2017 find?

A
  • More correctly identifying weapons when primed with a black face is systole
  • More correctly identifying tools when primed with a white face in systole
  • Basically systole exacerbated racially steretyped responses
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43
Q

What was Azevedo et al 2017’s second study?

A

First Person Shooter Task

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44
Q

What was the method of Azevedo et al 2017’s second study?

A
  • PPs were police
  • Had to decide whether or not to shoot the criminal
  • Confederated were either armed or unarmed and either black or white
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45
Q

What did Azevedo et al 2017 find in their second study?

A
  • PPs chose to shoot unarmed black men more often than unarmed white men
  • Significant effect is again only found during systole and in the unarmed condition
  • Important on how the physiological state of the body effects both emotions and thus our behaviour
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46
Q

What is Interoceptive Accuracy?

A

How accurate an individual is at detecting and interpreting interoceptive signals when compared with objective measures

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47
Q

How do we monitor heartbeat?

A
  • Mechanoreceptors respond to mechanical stimuli
  • Coronary mechanoreceptors detect changes in arterial blood pressure and generate afferent signals on each heartbeat
  • Individuals with high mechanoreceptive sensitivity may be able to feel and count their own heartbearts
48
Q

How do you take part in the heartbeat counting task?

A
  • participant counts heartbeats felt during a brief timeframe
  • actual heartbeats measures (ECG, pulse transducer)
  • Relate counted heartbeats with actual heartbeats
49
Q

What is Interoceptive Sensibility?

A

The subjective experience of interoception - how interoceptive signals are experienced irrespective of their objective reality.

50
Q

What is MAIA?

A

Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness

51
Q

What is Interoceptive Awareness?

A

The correspondence between objective interoceptive accuracy and subjective reports
- A metacognitive awareness of one’s own interoceptive accuracy

52
Q

What happens in the brain when attending to our heartrate?

A

Greater activation in the anterior insula when detecting a mismatch between the notes and heartbeats

53
Q

What correlates with accuracy of heartbeat detection?

A
  • Insula activity

- Grey matter volume

54
Q

What is the insular cortex associated with?

A
  • Cognitive and emotional tasks

- Body-related tasks

55
Q

Where is the insular cortex?

A

Hidden cortex folded below the lateral sulcus.

Beneath opercula of the frontal, parietal and temporal lobes.

56
Q

Where is the posterior connectivity in the insular cortex?

A

Posterior thalamus

57
Q

Where is the anterior connectivity in the insular cortex?

A

Limbic system, amygdala

58
Q

What connectivity is in the middle zone of the insular cortex?

A

Mix of anterior and posterior connectivity

59
Q

What is the connective route in the insular cortex?

A

Input enters the posterior insula and then connected to the mid and anterior for integration with other modalities

60
Q

What information does the insular cortex receive?

A

Info about blood pressure and oxygenation, the timing and strength of the heartbeat etc.

61
Q

What top down control happens in the insular cortex?

A

Top-down control of autonomic functions such as the regulating the heartbeat and blood pressure

62
Q

What other processes is the insular cortex involved in?

A
  • Pain
  • Emotion
  • Cognition
  • Social
  • Subjective feeling states
63
Q

What part of the insular is used in interoception?

A

Posterior insula

64
Q

What part of the insula is used in exteroception?

A

Anterior insula

65
Q

What is the mid-insula responsive to?

A
  • Hedonic (pleasant) response to food
66
Q

What can deficits in insular activity lead to?

A

Maladaptive thoughts and behaviour (e.g. panic disorder)

67
Q

How are psychiatric disorders related to interoception?

A
  • Interoceptive symptoms are prominent features of many psychiatic disorders e.g. anxiety and eating disorders
68
Q

What could be the interoceptive deficits causing psychiatric disorders?

A
  • Different processing on interoceptive signals

- Bias in reporting interoceptive signals

69
Q

What is corporeal awareness?

A

The perception, knowledge and evaluation of one’s own body as well as of other bodies

70
Q

What are interoceptive states constructed from?

A

Information from sensory predictions and regulatory actions

71
Q

What do classic theories suggest about interoception?

A

That cortical regions either reflect stimulus intensity or additive effects of intensity and expectations

72
Q

What do predictive theories suggest about interoception?

A

That perception is shaped by the integration of beliefs about the world with mismatches resulting from the comparison of these beliefs against sensory input

73
Q

What is an inaugural moment?

A

Initial sensory map from the body without prior experience

74
Q

How do we experience body state?

A
  • Predicted body state continually updated from afferent information and cognition
  • Results in prediction errors
  • Small errors ignored
  • Large errors detected and regulated to maintain homeostasis
  • Adapt predictions or adap physiological state
75
Q

How do anatomical connections link to anxiety?

A
  • Allow integration pf physiological state and cognition

- Linked to 2 key components of anxiety: sympathetic hyperarousal and worry

76
Q

What did Gueter et al 2014 find?

A
  • Posterior insular exhibited neural patterns in line with detecting pain intensity - receives afferents from viscerra
  • Anterior insula exhibited neural patterns in line with predictive coding of pain - integrates info with other modalities
  • these predictions are modality specific
77
Q

What did Gueter et al 2014 find?

A
  • Posterior insular exhibited neural patterns in line with detecting pain intensity - receives afferents from viscerra
  • Anterior insula exhibited neural patterns in line with predictive coding of pain - integrates info with other modalities
  • these predictions are modality specific
78
Q

What is a social phobia?

A

Exaggerated fear of negative scrutiny in social interactions

79
Q

What is a specific phobia?

A

Irrational fear of something that poses little or no actual danger

80
Q

What is PTSD?

A

Anxiety and flashbacks triggered by a traumatic event

81
Q

What did Etkin et al 2007 find about phobias/PTSD/anxiety?

A

Patients with all disorders demonstrate hyperactivity in the amygdala and insula

82
Q

What are maladaptive behaviours?

A

E.g. avoidance, withdrawal

83
Q

What are maladaptive cognitions?

A

e.g. rumination, worry

84
Q

What is a somatic error?

A

Overall difference between the predicted and observed body state

85
Q

What is panic disorder?

A

Regular sudden attacks of panic or fear

86
Q

What is a panic attack?

A

Sudden onset of interoceptive signals associated with fear/panic: dizziness, dyspnea, palpitations. feeling of impending doom or death

87
Q

Compare the insula in healthy participants compared to those with panic disorder.

A

Panic disorder: increased grey matter volume in the insula

88
Q

How do those with panic disorder get into a vicious cycle?

A
  • Experience mismatch between actual and experiences bodily state but then regulate body to minimise mismatch - increased heart rates - further anxiety
89
Q

How does belief affect interoception?

A
  • Change in the internal state which may be due to increases attentional bias toward the threat
  • Beliefs used to interpret internal body signals
  • External cues or internal thought generate anticipation of aversive body states that sets up body prediction error
90
Q

Which part of the brain is guilt linked to?

A

Left anterior insular cortex

91
Q

Which part of the brain is linked to sad self-relevant autobiographical memories?

A

Ventral insular

92
Q

What is the somatic error hypothesis?

A

Psychiatric disorders may be a result of mismatches between anticipated and incoming bodily signals

93
Q

What is compensatory behaviour in the somatic error hypothesis?

A

Psychiatric sympomology

94
Q

What is our experience based on?

A
  • Future predictions
  • Past experiences
  • Current inputs
95
Q

What is anorexia nervosa?

A
  • Extreme overvaluation of shape and weight
  • Disturbed eating, resulting in clinically significant impairments and psychosocial function due to self-starvation
  • Resistance to treatment, poor prognosis, high mortality
96
Q

How is interoception linked to AN?

A
  • Intuitive link between interoception and hunger

- dysfunctional thoughts and feelings impacting the interpretation of visceal signals

97
Q

How do patients with AN perform on the heartbeat perception task?

A

Reduction in the ability to accurately perceive their heartbeat compared to healthy controls

98
Q

What is the issue of cause and effect in AN studies?

A
  • Starving causes a lot of physical symptoms so it’s difficult to know
  • But there was no link to BMI in blood pressure studies so people who are more emaciated did not have a worse effect than they suggest - more to do with the pathology and then a consequence to starvation
99
Q

How is interoceptive accuracy and sensibility training effective in AN patients?

A

Any recovery was small and inconsistent

100
Q

Where are the most interoceptive deficits in AN?

A

Focussed on the gastric system

101
Q

What is rumination?

A

process of continuously thinking about the same thoughts, which tend to be sad or dark

102
Q

What happens in the insular in AN patients during stomach interception?

A

Reduced activity in the dorsal mid-insular

103
Q

What happens in the insula in AN patients during heart interception?

A

Higher activity in anterior insula

104
Q

What happens in the insula in AN patients during anxious rumination?

A

Increased activation in the dorsal mid-insular

105
Q

How are patients with AN led into a vicious interoceptive cycle?

A
  • Abnormal stomach interoception might worsen gastrointestinal symptoms during weight restoration
  • Gastric discomfort leading to anxiety and then greater discomfort
106
Q

What is isoproterenol?

A

Adrenoreceptor agonist or saline

107
Q

What happens to AN patients before consuming a meal?

A

Intense cardiorespiratory

108
Q

What prevents intuitive eating in AN patients?

A
  • Abnormal mapping of interoceptive signals results in prediction errors in internal body
  • Intuitive link between difficult perceiving hunger and satiety and dysfunctional eating habits
109
Q

How does interoception affect body image in AN patients?

A
  • failure to update external perception of the body

- don’t realise they have lost weight and continue to feel dissatisfied

110
Q

How does interoception lead to relapse in AN patients?

A
  • Prediction errors may lead to further errors and negative affective that is unresolved
  • Lead to risk of relapse
  • Both exteroceptive and interoceptive bodily symptoms continue following weight restoration
111
Q

How does interoception and treatment work together in AN patients?

A
  • Interoceptive abnormalities seem resistant to treatments

- Plasticity of the insula suggests issues can be targets for treatment

112
Q

What is the neural anatomical pathway?

A
  • Small-diameter afferent nerves project to Lamina 1 of the dorsal horn of the spinal cord
  • Projects contralateral to the lateral spinothalamic tract
  • Terminates in the posterior insula cortex
113
Q

what modalities of interoception are there?

A
  • gastrointestinal
  • nociceptive (pain)
  • thermoregulatory
  • cardiovascular
114
Q

What practical issues are there with measuring heartbeat as a measure of interception?

A
  • People tend to guess at roughly 1 per second
  • Gender
  • Individual differences
115
Q

What practical issues are there with measuring heartbeat as a measure of interception?

A
  • People tend to guess at roughly 1 per second
  • Gender
  • Individual differences